December 6, 2012

Another cat is home thanks to a microchip, even though his rescuer never knew he had one! Our manager, Jackie received a Home Again alert about a kitty missing from his home in Holliston. This is a service provided by Home Again microchips that alerts area shelters and pet lovers when a pet is reported missing in their area. Even though the alert didn't have a picture, Jackie thought of it when she heard from a kind person also from Holliston who was caring for a stray cat. Well lo and behold, the kitty was Giovanni, and he is back home. Here's the e-mail his rescuer sent to all the Shelters and rescue she had contacted in her efforts to find a place for the stray cat to go:

Greetings All -

After some ingenuity, a lot of luck, continued perseverance and maybe even a few prayers, the sweet little kitty that made its way to our doorstep last week in Holliston is now in the comfort of his original home. Although we cared for him throughout his brief stay, we knew he belonged to someone else. Bob and I could not be more thrilled!

Many of you were involved and I thank you. Jackie Walters of Medfield Shelter was our angel. She was instrumental to do a search, unbeknownst to me, and make the connection. Little did we all know that her efforts amounted to one lucky lead! Jackie then wrote to me and from there it took off with my eventual phone call to a national site named Home Again Pet Rescuers. Although Gio had no collar, he does have an implanted chip which identified his owners.

So long story short, there is a Santa and Gio is going to have a wonderful Christmas!

Happy holidays to you all! Please remove Gio from any existing waiting list or take down posters. Marty AKA Gio is not leaving his cushy home anytime soon!!

November 18, 2012

New Matching Challenge Grant Announced To Benefit The Medfield Animal Shelter

The Medfield Animal Shelter is pleased to announce this year’s matching challenge fundraiser. A group of longtime shelter supporters have once again offered to match every dollar that is donated to the Medfield Animal Shelter between November 15, 2012 and January 15, 2013 — up to $20,000! Previous matching challenge fundraisers have helped us raise a significant portion of our operating budget for the year, allowing our volunteers to spend more time helping pets in need.

You can make your donation to this worthy cause go twice as far by making a donation to the Medfield Animal Shelter by January 15, 2013! Please include a note with your donation letting us know that your donation is for the Matching Challenge Grant. The Matching Challenge Grant is open to anyone wishing to support the Medfield Animal Shelter, so please spread the word and make a donation today!

The annual fundraiser is very important to the Shelter and we are very grateful to be part of a community that supports our mission and for the donors who support us year after year. Our donors make it possible for every dog, cat and rabbit we place to be spayed or neutered to insure they can’t contribute to the pet overpopulation problem. They also make it possible for us to work with shelters and animal control officers across Massachusetts to take in animals in danger of being euthanized whenever we have space. We work hard to make sure every pet that we place will enjoy a good life in a caring home.

For more information about the Medfield Animal Shelter, please visit our website: www.medfieldshelter.com or follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MedfieldAnimalShelter

September 17, 2012

We are assisting Olive's current owner with trying to find her a home that would be a better fit for her activity level. She just isn't cut out for apartment life and her owner's want to find her a better fit. They are completely committed to her and will keep her until they find the right situation for her. Here's what they wrote about her:We adopted Olive from Northeast Animal shelter last December when she was around 12 weeks old. She's a rescue from Florida, and we were told she's likely a Blue Heeler mix, or possibly a German Short-Haired Pointer mix. She's just over a year old, medium-sized, and around 33 pounds.We enrolled her in 7 months of puppy training through Compatible Canine in Brookline, and we did classes with her every other week. We put in a serious amount of time training her, probably a solid hour a day for the entire duration, as well as training on our daily walks. Olive is extremely food-motivated, and we use a pinch collar to help with training when she's outside. Olive knows "down", "sit", "heel" (which means to sit on our left side), "crate", and "bed" (which means she lies down on her dog bed). And "sit" and "down" mean to hold it until we say "okay" to let her up. She'll hold those positions even if you leave the room. Olive is crate-trained, and she likes her crate. She sleeps in it at night, and we put her in her crate whenever we leave (as an aside, we don't let her on our furniture). We usually give her a kong with peanut butter and she'll entertain herself or sleep. She's also really good in the car - we have a crate in there and she sleeps the entire time.She LOVES other dogs. She's extremely playful and wants to run around and wrestle all the time. We have a 5 year-old puggle who she is always trying to engage in play, but frequently, Olive can be a little much for our other dog. Our puggle is more submissive and sensitive and Olive is dominant and very confident. She likes to hang on our other dog - nipping and just generally being very physical in her play style. It's not aggressive, but she would probably do best in a home with a dog that's at least her size and/or has a similar style of play and high energy level.As far as cats, we don't have any, but she's been around several while on the leash. She's interested in them and seems like she just wants to play, but she would need training so she knew what was appropriate interaction. She may be able to live with a cat, although it's important to note that she has very strong hunting instincts. She is constantly looking for birds and squirrels to chase outside, so I would be concerned that she might chase a cat. Again, training may be all she needs.We had Olive spayed at 6 months old. She's up-to-date on all of her shots. We took her to the vet for some routine blood work and a fecal test at the end of August and she's healthy - no heartworm, no parasites.Olive is a friendly, loving dog who simply has too much energy to be anything but frustrated in our Brookline apartment. She needs a big yard where she can run around to her heart's content, another high energy canine companion, or someone who needs a running, hiking, or hunting buddy. Unfortunately, we just can't provide that with our current living situation. We do our best to meet her needs with daily hour-long walks in the morning, half-hour lunchtime walks, treadmill time, and trips to the park to play fetch several times a week... but it isn't enough. More than anything, she loves to be outside, chasing squirrels and exploring. She just isn't a city or apartment dog. We are looking for a home with a fenced yard and high energy canine companion, or with someone that has an active job where she could tag along and be outside a lot. Please fill out the Shelter's adoption form if you are interested in adopting this beautiful but very active dog.

August 31, 2012

The Medfield Press came by the Shelter on Tuesday to see our low cost/spay neuter clinic in action. They heard we had received a grant from the Massachusetts Animal Coalition to run a clinic for feral cats (aferal cat is a descendant of a domesticated cat that has returned to the wild) and came to interview volunteer Karen Lundstrom. In addition to Karen's volunteer role as our clinic coordinator, she has a full time job as a nurse in Boston, and she and her 4 kids and husband often foster shy kittens to get them ready for adoption.

July 28, 2012

One of the most rewarding things about volunteering at an animal shelter is helping pets that have been neglected or mistreated find new families and receive all the care they haven't had. When Molly came into our care, we hoped to provide that to her, although she was in such poor condition we didn't know if she was too far gone to help. We are very sad to report that after a terrible night where she deteriorated rapidly, we made the difficult decision to put her to sleep. Dr. Pocher at Farm Street Veterinary Hospital did his best to save her, but in the end that just wasn't possible. This sweet and spunky girl touched our hearts, and the outpouring of donations from our supporters to help pay for her care was more than we could have hoped for. Many thank to Nancy who cared for over the last few days and was there with her at the end.

July 20, 2012

Molly is feeling much better, and thanks to so many of you that donated, she will be having her surgery to remove her bladder stones in a few weeks. The vet wants to make sure her pneumonia is all cleared up first, so she is going to a foster home this weekend to continue her recovery. This sweet dog has come back to life over the course of the last two weeks and volunteers that go just a few days between visits are amazed by her transformation. We are so grateful for the donations and all the concern from everyone that read about her on our blog or on Facebook.

July 16, 2012

Buddy was a great companion to an elderly owner for 4 years. The owner's son promised that when she passed away he would take care of Buddy. Sadly, now that she has died, he has reneged on the deal and planned to just throw Buddy out to fend for himself. The owner's caretaker called the Shelter desperate to find a safe place for this sweet cat to go and we took him in even though we really didn't have space. She told us he is a sweet kitty and loves to be cuddled and groomed. He purrs really loudly when petted and is a total ham about it. He is thriving on good food and care and is easy to have at the shelter. While he gets along with some cats, he can be a little bit of a bully, so he either needs to be an only cat, or needs to live with a confident cat that won't be intimidated by him. Please consider rewarding Buddy for his devotion to his owner by adopting him. If you are interested in meeting Buddy, please call the Shelter at 508.359.8989 or send an e-mail to info@medfieldshelter.com.

July 12, 2012

Molly came to the shelter just one week ago as a prearranged surrender. Her family had one young child and then a premature baby and they felt Molly was not getting enough attention. They sent us photos of a very chubby, bright and alert middle aged Beagle cutie. Our manager has a weakness for Beagles and Beagle mixes so she agreed to take Molly in. The dog that arrived looked nothing like the photos . Molly was dirty, reeked of a urinary tract infection, her ears were horribly infected, and bloody tears streamed down her face. But it didn't stop there. She was also blind and could not stand upright. She either fell over or walked in circles and then collapsed in a pool of urine. She was a dog in critical condition that needed immediate veterinary care. She was in such bad shape our manager wondered if it was too late to help her. The owner thought Molly was fine and insisted that the dog had just been feeling sad due to the lack of attention since the baby's arrival.

Molly was rushed off to a Farm Street Veterinary Clinic in Medfield where she received an exam that showed she had severe ear infections in both ears all the way down to her inner ears and was partially deaf from the long term effects, she was partially blind, was repeatedly walking into walls and could not walk in straight line. Blood work revealed a massive infection from multiple sources. She spent her first night in our care at the vet clinic where they started her on fluids and put her on four medications. Fortunately she started improving right away and let us know what a little trooper she is.

We are happy to report at Molly's one week check up she has her sight back almost completely, her ears are looking better but her hearing is still partially gone, she can walk in a straight line now so the worry of a possible brain tumor is gone. Her spirits are much brighter and she greeted her vet with wags and a woof when presented with a cookie to eat. Part of her recheck visit was to take an x-ray to look for bladder stones. The owners were not truthful with any of her health problems and it was learned after she came in that she has had bladder stones for 2 years that were never removed. The x-rays showed not only that the stones were still there but that she has also been dealing with pneumonia.

As you can imagine a shelter is not the ideal place for a pet that needs a high level of medical care. We are great at rehoming pets and loving them up until that time comes around but we are not a hospital and we do not have unlimited funds to take on a pet that should have been treated by it's owners as problems develop or been surrendered as soon as the first problem occurred. But being the kind of shelter we are we don't back away from an animal in need once it is in our care, we take our commitment to being a no-kill shelter seriously if our veterinary team of local hospitals tell us the pet has a chance. We are trying to find a way to help Molly get all the care she needs to get well and then find her next home. This plucky little beagle who at nearly 7 years old should live to be an old lady of 12 or more deserves another chance to be a loving pet.

Molly is easygoing and sweet, loves her car rides and takes her medication gladly in peanut butter and is thrilled to go for her short walks when she isn't taking long naps on her fleece bed right next to our manager's chair. Could you help us help Molly by donating toward her bladder surgery operation, by fostering her during her recuperation or by adopting her? To help with her expenses, go to MedfieldShelter.com and click on the Donate button. If you are interested in fostering or adopting her, please call 508.359.8989 or send an email.

May 4, 2012

There's nothing more fun than seeing 3 cats hanging out together and playing in our cage-free room. These 3 seem particularly active at night, running around with toys and causing a ruckus. Dancer (in the middle) came to the shelter in December as a shy older kitten. His brother Donner was friendlier and has already found a home, but Dancer has really taken his time. He has been letting people pet him at night when the shelter is quiet, but this week he started letting almost all volunteers pet him. His friends Arnold (brown tabby) and Lancelot (orange tabby) love to swarm around our volunteers for attention, and Dancer is now joining them for this routine! Hopefully this is the start of the change we were hoping for since we would love to find him a home.

March 26, 2012

Thanks to Sam Epstein, every dog adopted from the Medfield Shelter gets to bring home a bark bucket full of toys and supplies! Sam and his family came up with this clever idea to decorate the tables for his recent Bar Mitzvah celebration. We love them and so do the dogs. Thanks so much, Sam!

January 9, 2012

Anyone that has adopted a pet from us knows we practically demand photos of the pets enjoying their new homes. These "happy tails" are what keep us going and we love every picture that is shared with us. So we are starting the new year off with pictures of two recently adopted pets, Thumper, a young mixed breed dog, and Jelly Bean, an older bunny.